The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In the field of satellite broadcasting, and, more particularly, to satellite broadcasting television signals, the quality of emitted signals may vary. Various sources of a degradation in quality exist. Equipment changes, operation and installation errors, or interference all can result in the degradation of the received signal. Various places in the radio frequency (RF) uplink chain may contribute to a degradation in quality of the signal. Throughout the RF chain, the electronics of the different elements, plus the atmosphere, may distort the shape of the emitted signals at the modulator. Various instruments may be used to provide an RF analysis of the incoming signal. The machines are typically stand-alone machines that are used to receive the signals. Such systems are typically very expensive and are not practical for field deployment.
There is also a need to compensate for the above-mentioned distortions in the signal. Analog equalizers are commonly used to attempt to equalize the signal. Analog equalizers typically have several filters in cascade. Each filter of the sequence is then tuned to a particular bandwidth of the total desired equalizer response, one at a time. The problem with this approach is that the response of the equalizer for a particular frequency band is due not only to the specific filter used in that region, but it is also dependent upon the response of the other filters. Therefore, when a particular filter is tuned, previously-tuned filters must be readjusted in the hopes that the particular iteration will end up to be a satisfactory solution. Typically, a satisfactory solution is not obtained. Oftentimes, a predetermined performance level is not reached and, therefore, after many hours of work, the equalizer may yet be far from its optimum operating point.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a way to determine distortions in the RF system and provide a method for equalizing the distortions in the system.